BlueBand Media World's Digital Agency

BlueBand Media is a digital communications agency. What does that mean? and “oh, we already have an agency and they have a digital division” – this is a common response we hear as we approach new prospects. I want to take a few minutes and talk about usability and why “know to code websites” is very different from “creating a digital communication for your website”.

Call us today to find out if your site passes the usability test.
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A website built using usability best practices will result in lower exit rates, lower bounce rates, longer visits, and more conversions. I know this sounds obvious, but it’s surprising to see how many websites don’t follow this mantra.

There are several must haves when it comes to meeting usability best practices:

1. Whose site is this and what does this company do?
1. The first thing you want to do is have your company name, logo and tag line set apart, in a visible spot because you want the visitor to immediately know what site they’re on.
2. Many sites use flash animation in a prominent billboard area of the home page to deliver messaging along with supportive imagery to define what the company does and for whom. The flash is used to “tell the company’s story”. Combined with a positioning statement, these two tactics immediately tell the visitor what you do, your target market and the benefits of your solution.

2. Navigation: Main nav bar and sub nav bar
1. When it comes to navigation, you don’t want to make the visitor think. That’s why you’ll see many sites with a main navigation for content sections such as About Us, Solutions, etc., along with a sub nav above it for less important, yet frequently used sections such as home, contact us, careers and search.
2. The reason for putting “home” in the sub nav is that you always want the visitor to be able to get back to the home page in one click. That’s why many sites also have the company logo link back to the home page.

3. Quickly establish credibility and trust: This is accomplished via:
1. SEO – if someone’s coming to the site due to a keyword search, the content needs to speak to that term.
2. Awards
3. Customer logos
4. Your positioning statement
5. Recent press releases
6. Upcoming events
7. Professional, up to date, look and feel

4. Lead generation/conversion
1. Promotions and other offers will convert visitors into qualified opportunities. In addition, having offers and calls to action on the home page will lower that page’s exit rate.
2. For example, “See how our solution enabled ABC Company to reduce its energy expenses by X%” with a link to the case study. If it’s a real good case study, make the person register before being able to access it.
3. Here’s another good one – “Learn how we can save you $X per month using our solution. Sign up for a free trial now.”
4. Remember, for maximum conversion, you want these offers to go to a landing page dedicated to the offer.

5. Site search
1. If you have a large site or if you plan to grow your site over time, you should have a search in the sub nav mentioned in 2 above.
2. Best practices says to have the term “site search” or “search” followed by a text box,

6. Log in
1. If your site has an area for visitors to log in, a log in button should be in the sub nav described in 2 above.

7. Text links in the footer
1. Usability best practices dictates that you place text links in a footer at the bottom of the page. This is especially important if your main nav bar uses images or java script because the search engines can’t read those two items. Having text links in the footer ensures that the search engines will still be able to surf and index your site.

8. Quick links –
1. Items that are visited frequently, such as documents within a resource center or specific product pages, should be called out to make it easy for visitors to get to that info.

its been a while since the last tweet! .. we grew and moved to King & Bathurst. More info to come in the coming weeks..

As a creative person there and many ways to skin the layout cat. Once the designers have played with infinite kerning and pallete choices and rollover states, then It goes into the hands of the programmer who has a completely different set of options and variations how to basically do similar things. But the variations that exist, everything from proprietary JavaScript tools to homemade solutions will affect the user experience.

So the big question is who drives the experience? Designers ultimately care more about the visual integrity of a site while the developers get that warm fuzzy feeling around “does it work”. We care about each others stake in the project but are we engaging each other enough?

If I was to present multiple options to my development team and then have them take those and show me several ways to make it happen ( both with lists of pro’s and con’s that involve everything from usability to ease of updates) would the end result be a project with zero compromise as it is being worked on (which is the current bain of my existence at the moment)

This is how the next project is going to flow. I need to understand if the levels of initial engagement are in place, can you build a site that does not require compromise three weeks into development and can the client get exactly what they signed off on.

This also happens to be the TOP 100 Brands list for 2009, but..hey what the heck..GO BIG or GO HOME right? – SB

1 Coca-Cola 68,734 3% US
2 IBM 60,211 2% US
3 Microsoft 56,647 -4% US
4 GE 47,777 -10% US
5 Nokia 34,864 -3% Finland
6 McDonald’s 32,275 4% US
7 Google 31,980 25% US
8 Toyota 31,330 -8% Japan
9 Intel 30,636 -2% US
10 Disney 28,447 -3% US
11 Hewlett-Packard 24,096 2% US
12 Mercedes-Benz 23,867 -7% Germany
13 Gillette 22,841 4% US
14 Cisco 22,030 3% US
15 BMW 21,671 -7% Germany
16 Louis Vuitton 21,120 -2% France
17 Marlboro 19,010 -11% US
18 Honda 17,803 -7% Japan
19 Samsung 17,518 -1% S. Korea
20 Apple 15,443 12% US
21 H&M 15,375 11% Sweden
22 American Express 14,971 -32% US
23 Pepsi 13,706 3% US
24 Oracle 13,699 -1% US
25 Nescafe 13,317 2% Switzerland
26 Nike 13,179 4% US
27 SAP 12,106 -1% Germany
28 Ikea 12,004 10% Sweden
29 Sony 11,953 -12% Japan
30 Budweiser 11,833 3% US
31 UPS 11,594 -8% US
32 HSBC 10,510 -20% Britain
33 Canon 10,441 -4% Japan
34 Kellogg’s 10,428 7% US
35 Dell 10,291 -12% US
36 Citi 10,254 49% US
37 J.P. Morgan 9,550 -11% US
38 Goldman Sachs 9,248 -10% US
39 Nintendo 9,210 5% Japan
40 Thomson Reuters 8,434 1% Canada
41 Gucci 8,182 -1% Italy
42 Philips 8,121 -2% Netherlands
43 Amazon 7,858 22% US
44 L’Oreal 7,748 3% France
45 Accenture 7,710 -3% US
46 eBay 7,350 -8% US
47 Siemens 7,308 -8% Germany
48 Heinz 7,244 9% US
49 Ford 7,005 -11% US
50 Zara 6,789 14% Spain
51 Wrigley 6,731 10% US
52 Colgate 6,550 2% US
53 AXA 6,525 -7% France
54 MTV 6,523 -9% US
55 Volkswagen 6,484 -8% Germany
56 Xerox 6,431 1% US
57 Morgan Stanley 6,399 -26% US
58 Nestle 6,319 13% Switzerland
59 Chanel 6,040 -5% France
60 Danone 5,960 10% France
61 KFC 5,722 3% US
62 Adidas 5,397 6% Germany
63 Blackberry 5,138 7% Canada
64 Yahoo! 5,111 -7% US
65 Audi 5,010 -7% Germany
66 Caterpillar 5,004 -5% US
67 Avon 4,917 -7% US
68 Rolex 4,609 -7% Switzerland
69 Hyundai 4,604 -5% S. Korea
70 Hermes 4,598 1% France
71 Kleenex 4,404 -5% US
72 UBS 4,370 -50% Switzerland
73 Harley-Davidson 4,337 -43% US
74 Porsche 4,234 -8% Germany
75 Panasonic 4,225 -1% Japan
76 Tiffany & Co. 4,000 -5% US
77 Cartier 3,968 -6% France
78 Gap 3,922 -10% US
79 Pizza Hut 3,876 -5% US
80 Johnson&Johnson 3,847 7% US
81 Allianz 3,831 -5% Germany
82 Moet & Chandon 3,754 -5% France
83 BP 3,716 -5% Britain
84 Smirnoff 3,698 3% Britain
85 Duracell 3,563 -3% US
86 Nivea 3,557 5% Germany
87 Prada 3,530 -2% Italy
88 Ferrari 3,527 0% Italy
89 Armani 3,303 -6% Italy
90 Starbucks 3,263 -16% US
91 Lancome 3,235 N/A France
92 Shell 3,228 -7% Netherlands
93 Burger King 3,223 N/A US
94 Visa 3,170 -5% US
95 Adobe 3,161 N/A US
96 Lexus 3,158 -12% Japan
97 Puma 3,154 N/A Germany
98 Burberry 3,095 N/A Britain
99 PoloRalphLauren 3,094 N/A US
100 Campbell’s 3,081 N/A US

So Twitter-ville likes the use of hash-tags or “#”. One prevalent Hash Tag is #musicmonday, and I wanted to share one hash-tag, but in more so than the 100 or so characters they allow you to place in a single tweet. Clutch is a band that has been around for a long time, and not many people are aware of their existence, their sound is that of a down-south bluesy grassy chug rockin’ good time. More people should listen to this, at least with a bottle of JD, because it resonates in a part of your body that most other bands fail to agitate. It could just be that it reminds me of Windsor, my original home, and the amounts of cigarette smoke-filled garages that I have listened to Clutch, or various similar bands, in while demolishing a case of beer, and inevitably playing a sloppy game of S.K.A.T.E. within the garage.

for your ears and your eyes, I give you a reference.

“Business men don’t smile…” – as quoted by 6 year old Chris Gostling on the subject of facial expression choices for a photo of him dressed in suit, tie and briefcase.

This is what I grew up understanding, you would watch neighbors and such talk about work, and my father was also very serious about business. As a little kid you just see work as serious and not fun.

I have been a designer for the better part of a decade. I love what I do. I make a living thinking creatively. Blueband media adds another level of enjoyment to my career. Surrounded by other thinkers with very diverse ideas is challenging. It makes you question your own ideas and help build greater experiences for our clients.

It is just really enjoyable. This is a short post, but that was what I was feeling when I walked in the office this morning after working until 2:30am this morning smiling.

Cg

So I have been a big fan of Adobe products since I was using Photoshop 3.something and Illustrator 5.im.really.old.

The company has done alot to make design easier over the years and help bridge the gap issues between designing for print and designing for digital (read my previous post about how different these are). The acquisition of Macromedia also has helped add smoothness between graphic designers and flash/web developers. Up until the last few years it has been the difference between speaking English and speaking say… cockerspaniel My programmer would generally know what I was saying and would sit there and then get me “almost what I asked for”

But alas, this is changing and we can create files that can be very easily translated into web friendly projects that look very close if not exactly like the signed off design.

So.. onto my actual reason for this post.

And I quote from the Globe and Mail today: Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE-Q35.620.431.22%) said Tuesday it will buy the Web analytic software company Omniture Inc. (OMTR-Q17.320.331.91%) for about $1.8-billion (U.S.), giving the maker of content-creation software a way to let marketers measure the effectiveness of such content.

This is pretty cool. We use fairly straightforward analytics tools already. I am very excited to see what will come of this acquisition. I am hoping that they dont simply bury the tools into some new lame-ass copy of Dreamweaver, but actually create tools that programmers can use.

So I was at a wedding this weekend… the conversation goes as follows:

“Yeah, I have a digital marketing company”
“Blank stare… you mean websites?”
“Yes… we make websites, but also all the steps before that happens”
“Blank stare… like what?… I just got my website online and it only cost $500… how much are your websites?…”

Then I tell them

“Wow, that seems like a lot of money for a website. Why would I do that?…”
“Blank stare… (from me this time)…”

Was an interesting conversation. I know the value of great strategic thinking, brand conscious design and information layout. But how do we convince people when there is something out there that has the same general purpose for in some cases 1% of the cost of a proper strategic digital experience? People wouldn’t by a $500 car because we would think it is unsafe, or stolen or broken, etc. What the foundation of this thought pattern is, is that a $500 CAR IS NOT AS EFFECTIVE AS A PROPERLY BUILT CAR. But how do we make people with CPG companies understand this.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a firm believer in someone building a cheap website for a fun project like a wedding, or a fan page, or to try to sell their broken Eagle Talon. But a $10 million dollar company that produces some national product needs more than this. Everything from the branding of the site (the entire experience should “feel” like the brand you are trying to make people aware of, whether it acts like the store experience or the lifestyle associated with the product), to analytics (and more than that actually UNDERSTANDING THEM and then adapting the online (and potentially the offline) experience to match these realized social patterns.

It is one of our jobs as industry leaders to help companies understand the value in a proper strategic digital experience. This is some of the more exciting parts of my job.

Cg

I enjoy following politics, the US has far more interesting stories (“YOU LIE!”), but for this post I’m going to link you to some goings on in Canadian poltics.

Our rat-eyed PM got himself into a bit of trouble on September 2 at a rally where a student taped his speech in Sault Ste. Marie:

I think it’s interesting the way Harper consistently wants to align Canadian policy with US policy, no matter how detrimental the US policy proves to be. Case in point is the new bill C-15. Even though the majority of Canadians would like to see marijuana legalized (if not at least decriminalized) this bill sets minimum sentences for a variety of drug related activities… for example if you’re caught making hash you will get a 1 year mandatory minimum… theft doesn’t even carry that harsh of a penalty. You can read more about bill C-15 here.

Finally, not quite politic related, Research In Motion CEO Jim Balsillie has upped his bid to bring the Coyotes to Canada by $30 million. With the Leafs continuing to make cash hand-over-foot without really making any progress in their game, I eagerly await a new NHL team for the GTA.